Ecommerce is one of the most challenging and competitive verticals in SEM.

No matter what industry you’re in, you’re undoubtedly competing against behemoths like Amazon/Walmart with a constant fear of scrappy niche startups nipping at your heels.

As more and more dollars shift toward Shopping ads and the competition continues to climb, retailers need to adopt more advanced strategies in order to stay ahead.

Implement Shopping Brand Non-Brand Keyword Segmentation

Keyword-based text ads allow retailers to easily understand a consumer’s window of intent and are able to optimize accordingly.

However, shopping ads were created on a product-based bidding model, which means Google’s auction selects what products show up for a specific search result.

This model takes away an important aspect of optimization and bid control because retailers are not able to bid differently on a consumer throughout their purchase journey.

While this can be disheartening it doesn’t have to be!

There is a solution to the product bidding disadvantage:

Keyword segmentation.

Through the shopping setting, campaign priority, you are able to control how much you bid for different types of queries.

How do campaign priorities work?

When you have the same product in multiple shopping campaigns, you can determine which campaign should participate in the auction for that product with the campaign priority – high, medium, or low.

The highest priority campaign will always enter the auction first, regardless of how much you are bidding.

To create a shopping keyword segmentation structure retailers must start by building three campaigns of the same product, or group of products, each with a different priority setting – high, medium, and low.

The priority settings will act as a funnel, filtering down more specific keywords via negatives.

Below is a table to highlight how the shopping keyword segmentation structure works.

You’re able to group together different ecommerce, fashion, and retail products using vivid, high-quality digital images.

You can complement existing products with multiple smaller products, or combine several “me-too” products within a larger discounted offer.

Showcase ads are used to target more generic non-brand queries and appear on mobile search results.

On the SERP, the ad features a brand-specific, customized hero image relating to the search query along with two smaller images.

These smaller images show the actual products. When the user clicks into the ad it features the custom hero image, a custom description to help introduce the brand, and up to 10 individual products.

Aside from the visual differences, Showcase Shopping ads use maximum CPE (cost per engagement) bidding, which means that advertisers set the highest amount that they are willing to pay for an engagement.

They then are charged when someone expands the ad and spends 10+ seconds within the ad or when a user clicks on a link to the site before the 10 seconds.

In 2018, Showcase ads continued to gain mobile click share and have continued to gain momentum in 2019.

This ad format is a great branding tool, tailored towards user engagement rather than user acquisition and best used as an upper-funnel tactic.

Connect Online to Offline with Local Inventory Ads

According to Google, almost 80% of shoppers will go in-store when the retailer has an item they want immediately.

One of the best ways to address this expectation of immediate in-store availability is through local inventory ads.

This ad format is a great way to drive customers to your store, capturing their attention by highlighting products available at stores nearby.

Local inventory ads appear on mobile queries that include local intent (for example, “dresses near me”) and will trigger if the user is within 35 miles of a store.

While local inventory ads are a great option for all brick-and-mortar advertisers, the setup and maintenance can prove challenging.

Advertisers must ensure in-store availability and inventory counts in the feed are updated daily.

In an attempt to alleviate the onboarding and maintenance of local feeds, Google launched a local feed partnership program. This new program allows third-party inventory data providers to provide sale and inventory data to Google on behalf of the merchant.

Once an advertiser launches local inventory campaigns the recommended way to measure impact is through multiple sources, like Google Ads and Google Analytics.

Monitoring key metrics like in-store traffic and online orders, as well as other analytics, allow retailers to optimize campaigns toward in-store visits and resulting offline and online sales.

Target the Less Obvious Audience

Audience tools like demographics, customer match and retargeting are some of the more powerful features Google and Bing have created in recent memory.

Advertisers have the ability to customize messaging, increase/decrease bids and generally pinpoint whatever or whomever you want!

Some of the most commonly used (and recommended) audiences are in-market, meaning Google is able to hone in on people who are actively researching to make a significant purchase.

If you’re an insurance company, it seems like a no brainer to add an audience of users who are in market for insurance, right? The challenge is all of your competitors are doing the same thing.

Consider using audiences as a way to find what else your audience likes and target accordingly.

If you’re selling handbags or jewelry, you might find success targeting men who want to buy something for their significant other’s birthday or anniversary.

Google has a bevy of tools to help identify these cohorts as well. Head over to the Audience Insights section of the audience manager to get a view of what your audience likes relative to the rest of the country.

Below is a snapshot from a luxury watch seller. Perhaps it shouldn’t be too surprising the audience indexes high for Pools, Sailing, and Trips to Miami!

Re-Evaluate Your KPIs

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS as we all affectionately call it) can be a dangerous metric. It’s a single snapshot in time, evaluating only whether a single order made money or not.

Optimizing to single-purchase ROAS only will diminish the ability to compete in challenging auctions. Consider evaluating towards Cost Per Acquired Customer, Customer Lifetime Value or one-year customer payback as a better true north metric.

For true, top-of-the-funnel prospecting search terms, consider targeting micro-conversions or “steps” as a way to add value without breaking the bank.

Optimize toward an email list subscribe, or use early-stage terms as a way to build retargeting pools to market to later.